While a strong web presence is especially crucial now as members rely on online resources to stay engaged with associations, its value extends beyond the pandemic. It allows you to  prioritize your members’ experience online and convey that you value their support. Overall, an effective digital marketing strategy can serve as a strong communication tool that can easily translate into member acquisition and retention.

Given that most associations already have an online presence, focus on enhancing existing strategies. The core of an effective digital strategy is a well-designed website, so start refining your strategic blueprint here. Focus on three areas: optimize your website for mobile, share valuable content on your blog, and incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) best practices.

Optimize Your Website for Mobile

These days, more than half of all nonprofit website traffic comes from mobile devices, according to Double the Donation’s statistics page. A mobile-optimized website will reformat and restructure itself for mobile screens. Consider these three tips to help you optimize mobile:

Develop mobile forms. Each form (e.g., donation pages, membership signup pages, event registrations, etc.) should scale for mobile so visitors don’t have to zoom in and out or rotate their device to fill it out. This will ensure that the completion process is as seamless as possible.

When you create valuable content, it can strongly improve member engagement, and the best way to share this content is on your blog.

Avoid pop-ups. Pop-ups can easily frustrate mobile users if they can’t locate the close button.

Improve page speed. Nothing deters a visitor quite like a slow website, especially on a mobile device. To improve load time, condense image sizes, minify code, limit redirects, and leverage browser caching.

Keep in mind that the right content management system (CMS) will automate this process so you can spend more time focusing on connecting with members.

Share Valuable Content on Your Blog

When you create valuable content, it can strongly improve member engagement, and the best way to share this content is on your blog. While the heart of strong content is compelling topics and good writing, other components to consider include:

Strong Imagery. Compelling visuals support your posts and help readers connect on an emotional level. However, overloading your pages with too many will slow load time and distract readers from your core message. Instead, use strategically chosen and well-placed images to break up your content.

Privatization. Make sure your CMS enables private pages, so you can restrict certain content to members-only. However, be careful with what content you privatize. Privatizing the wrong information—such as donation forms and registration pages—may end up damaging your web presence instead of helping it.

Calls to action. When your posts motivate a reader to take action, make sure they use strong language that tells them how to help. This way, they know exactly what their next steps are, whether that’s attending a virtual fundraiser, becoming a member, or registering for online learning.

Social media sharing. Social media share buttons allow readers to share content with their networks with just one click. This connects you with new prospects and keeps current members engaged.

Incorporate SEO Best Practices

You’ve likely heard the term SEO. This is the process of improving your website to increase its visibility on search engines like Google. SEO can directly affect the quality and quantity of your website traffic. Here are a few of the benefits of good SEO:

Better content. Following SEO best practices can lead to a more intuitive layout and better readability for your web pages. From your homepage to your blogposts, SEO guidelines require optimized titles, readable headers, descriptive image alt-text, and more. Keeping these effective SEO strategies in mind will help to create high-quality and inviting content.

Low cost. The great thing about SEO is that you don’t have to pay for ads on search engines to rank well. Organic rankings can be achieved at the cost of staff time, which can be further minimized by using dedicated SEO tools.

Industry authority. When your web pages rank well for important industry terms, online searchers will recognize your association as an expert, solidifying your digital authority.

Now that you’re aware of the importance of a strong web presence, get to work refining your strategy. In no time, you’ll strengthen your association’s visibility online and effectively reach new prospects.